• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

My Octopus Setup! what do you think?

A few of my service tanks have them, and even the higher-quality valves will tend to degrade over time as things grow on them. The nice ones are even clear so you can visually inspect growth inside. As they age I've found they tend to "bounce" for a few minutes after the pump turns off, making a thud-thud-thud sound. While they do this a certain amount of water is still flowing back through. Depending on the system it could be enough to flood.

Remember that anything that gets in there--even the tiniest piece of algae--can keep it from sealing completely. And even the smallest leak through the check valve is still enough to cause a flood given enough time: will the power be out for a minute or an hour?

The bottom line for me is it is a mechanical device, and every mechanical device will fail eventually, sooner in such a demanding environment as these. I've only had one fail and cause a minor flood (luckily on an engineered floor), but I top off the tank with the pump off to limit the valve's necessity. Is it possible for you to raise the wavemaker near the surface or drill an anti-siphon hole? Another option may be to add a closed loop and put the wavemaker on that.
 
I agree with Dan completely about check valves. Unless you clean the religiously weekly, they are bound to fail - even cleaning them weekly is no guarantee they will work. At the public aquarium I help out at, they use check valves (big ones), they have engineers on duty 24 hours a day, and they check valves still fail. I have tried several different kinds just to see, and all of them leaked.


mosthated,

On your system I don't see any actual overflows, just piping, and not even standpipes, but pvc u's with airline nipples. Am I not seeing something in the pic? If I'm not, those pvc u's will be actual siphons which isn't a good idea. Also it looks like the inlet of the return pump is a ways below the water line, and in a power outage it will also become a siphon.
 
Paradox;98997 said:
What do you see happening to them in the long run? Have you had leaks?

I have to have one, because Im using a wavemaker that sits 1.5 inches under water level. With a 150 gallon tank, thats a lot of water!

Which wavemaker? There are other ways to deal with the problem. :biggrin2:
 
Psychopompos;98977 said:
if you use a sump is it important to have a refugium? and what is the point of a refugium, just more filtration?

The idea of a refugium has really become muddy in the last few years. Originally, it was a refuge for pods and other animals that tank inhabitants would eat. Slowly, the water would flow to the main tank giving the tank inhabitants the chance at a tasty snack. Now, many people use them as a place to grow macro algae.
Most ceph set ups don't nee the critters, but may benefit from macro algae. I think a macro algae section in the sump would be more efficient than a common refugium set up.
 
Thales - i made my overflows out of pvc, why is that not a good idea? seem to be working fine, and i know the outlet works as a over flow now! =) thats why i said i need a check valve.
 
Thales;99038 said:
Which wavemaker? There are other ways to deal with the problem. :biggrin2:

Im using a wavesea. I can try raising it or finding a place to add a siphone hole as suggested. Unless theres a better solution? In my past setup I used no check valve, but just had a small siphon hole.

Thanks!
 
mosthated;99042 said:
Thales - i made my overflows out of pvc, why is that not a good idea? seem to be working fine, and i know the outlet works as a over flow now! =) thats why i said i need a check valve.

Just to make sure we are on the same page - an overflow is a system where the water in the tank gets raised by a pump in the sump to the point where it overflows into some kind of drain. In your set up, it looks more like you built a PVC u tube which will be a siphon not a drain. It doesn't look like you actually have overflows at all, but I could be misreading the pics.

You can raise your outlet up to just below the water line, so if the power goes out you will only siphon a little water before the siphon breaks, or you can drill an anti siphon hole.
 
Paradox;99044 said:
Im using a wavesea. I can try raising it or finding a place to add a siphone hole as suggested. Unless theres a better solution? In my past setup I used no check valve, but just had a small siphon hole.

Thanks!

Gotcha. Definitely drill a siphon hole. I use to hate them because I thought they would significantly lower the flow our of the pipe, but they don't. I have a 1/4 inch siphon hole on on of my rigs and it works well.
I would also be lazy and leave the check valve in place.
 
yeah, i understand what you mean, in my mind siphon = overflow, but my tanks not drilled so i built made the siphons =) the little nipple on top is a check valve and i have a lifter pump on the way i am going to be hooking up to them, that way if there is a power outage, when the power comes back on it will make sure the siphon starts. I do however have the pump in its own chamber which probly has MAYBE a gallon of water in it so each take could hold it if worse came to worse
 
Somehow I would not put it past Tony to have come up with just that idea in mind when he chose the post/name scheme. If he didn't I'd bet he would not admit to creating a serendipitously appropriate nominclature.
 

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